Originally starting out as an ancient Celtic holiday, Druidic
priests regarded the day as the end of the year and a
celebration for the year's harvest. October 31 was the first day
of a three-day celebration called Samhain, meaning "the end
of summer". It marked the passage from the season of the
sun to the season of darkness, but was also a festival for
honoring the dead. The Celts believed the laws of space and time
were suspended on this night, allowing the spirit world to
crossover and intermingle with the living world.

As the story goes, the disembodied spirits of all those who had
passed away throughout the preceding year would come back on
that night in search of living bodies to possess for the coming
year. Apparently, it was their only hope for an afterlife. To
protect themselves, the Celtic priests developed spells, charms
and ritualistic burning sacrifices to appease the wandering
spirits that roamed the night.

Of course, being alive you certainly didn't want to get
possessed, so on the night of October 31st, people would put out
the fires in their fireplaces and furnaces, to make their homes
cold and undesirable to the wandering spirits. To complete the
ritual, they would then dress in ghoulish costumes, parading
around the neighborhoods causing ruckus and destruction in order
to scare off the spirits looking for a warm body to inhabit.

The word Halloween is a concoction. Samhain (pronounced sow-en,
the sow rhymes with cow, that "en" part is important
to remember) was combined with the November 1st Catholic holiday
of "All Hallows Eve", otherwise known as "All
Hallows Day "or "All Saints Day". The old English
word "Hallow" meant to sanctify. It was the day for
honoring the Catholic saints. By the 7th century AD it was
adapted as "All Soul's Day" to honor all the dead and
not just the saints. Over time, these two celebrations were
combined into one mega-fest by the growing populations of
Europe. And abracadabra, sow-en and Hallows Eve merged creating
Halloween. In Ireland it is sometimes referred to as Hallow E'en
and others still spell it, Hallowe'en, further emphasizing the
marriage of terms and holidays.

Eventually the traditional Roman celebration on November 1st
honoring Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, was
absorbed into the Halloween punch bowl. Bringing its own traits
with it, Pomona's symbol was an apple, which most likely
inspired the party activity of bobbing for apples.

Celebration of Halloween came to America with early Irish and
Scottish immigrants. The belief in spirit possession had
subsided compared to the early days and the act of dressing as
ghouls, goblins, ghosts and witches was more like today's
ceremonious fun.

However, the anarchy still remained from the early Celtic days.
Favorite tricks of the time were knocking over outhouses,
especially with someone inside and unhinging fence gates,
freeing farm animals and the like.

8. ...OR TREAT
The treat part of trick-or-treating originated with a 9th
century European custom called "souling". On "All
Souls Day", early Christians would walk door-to-door
begging for "soul cakes", little squares of bread made
with currants (yummy). You see, at the time, it was believed
that the souls of the dead remained in limbo on earth and that
prayers would speed the soul's passage to heaven. The more soul
cakes the beggars would get, the more prayers they would promise
to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the givers.

An Irish folklore tells the tale of a lazy trickster named Jack.
In his whole life he never made a single enemy, nor a single
friend, never did an honest day's work or performed a single
selfless act for anyone. But despite his sloth and constant
state of inebriation, he was able to foil the Devil's attempt at
taking his soul.

One Halloween Jack's number was up and the Devil arrived to do
his deed. Jake was of course having a pint at the pub and asked
the Devil for permission to finish his ale. The Devil agreed and
Jack struck up a conversation. He asked, "If you really
have any power, you could transform yourself into anything,
right? Even a shilling." The Devil took it as challenge and
transformed himself into a silver coin. Jack snatched up the
coin and scratched a cross-shaped scar into the face. The power
of the cross, being like kryptonite to Superman, made the Devil
powerless and held him captive.

Jack bartered with Satan, he would free him if he would grant
Jack another year of life so that he would have time to repent.
Having little choice, the Devil made it so. A year passed, Jack
being Jack, never got around to getting off his bar stool to
repent.

Again it was Halloween, but Satan was a no show. Suddenly Jack
knew why, presto-change-o, Jack was dead and standing at the
pearly gates. He was getting to go to heaven. Ah, but before
admittance he had to get the okay from St. Peter. Checking his
records, St. Peter gave Jack the thumbs down, boo-hoo, for Jack
had never performed a single selfless act. Off to hell Jack
would go.

However, Satan wasn't having any of it either. He was still
ticked for getting tricked. Having nowhere else to go, the Devil
gave Jack a single burning ember in a hollowed out turnip. With
only this simple lantern to light his path, rejected from heaven
and hell, poor Jack was doomed to wander in the darkness
forever.

The Irish originally used turnips as their "Jack's
lanterns". But in America, pumpkins were far easier to come
by than turnips. Pumpkins also pulled a double duty, symbolizing
the giant full moon of harvest. So, the man-in-the-moon and
trickster Jack combined to form the carved face pumpkins of our
Jack O' Lanterns.